History of Egypt

THE ROOTS OF EGYPTIAN civilization go back more than 6,000 years to the beginning of
settled life along the banks of the Nile River. The country has an unusual geographical
and cultural unity that has given the Egyptian people a strong sense of identity and a
pride in their heritage as descendants of humankind's earliest civilized community.

Within
the long sweep of Egyptian history, certain events or epochs have been crucial to the
development of Egyptian society and culture. One of these was the unification of Upper
Egypt and Lower Egypt sometime in the third millennium B.C. The ancient Egyptians regarded
this event as the most important in their history, comparable to the "First
Time," or the creation of the universe. With the unification of the "Two
Lands" by the legendary, if not mythical, King Menes, the glorious Pharaonic Age
began. Power was centralized in the hands of a god-king, and, thus, Egypt became the first
organized society.

The ancient Egyptians were the first people of antiquity to believe in life after
death. They were the first to build in stone and to fashion the arch in stone and brick.
Even before the unification of the Two Lands, the Egyptians had developed a plow and a
system of writing. They were accomplished sailors and shipbuilders. They learned to chart
the heavens in order to predict the Nile flood. Their physicians prescribed healing
remedies and performed surgical operations. They sculpted in stone and decorated the walls
of their tombs with naturalistic murals in vibrant colors. The legacy of ancient Egypt is
written in stone across the face of the country from the pyramids of Upper Egypt to the
rock tombs in the Valley of the Kings to the Old Kingdom temples of Luxor and Karnak to
the Ptolemaic temples of Edfu and Dendera and to the Roman temple to Isis on Philae
Island.

The Arab conquest of 641 by the military commander Amr ibn al As was perhaps the next
most important event in Egyptian history because it resulted in the Islamization and
Arabization of the country, which endure to this day. Even those who clung to the Coptic
religion, a substantial minority of the population in 1990, were Arabized; that is, they
adopted the Arabic language and were assimilated into Arab culture.

Although Egypt was formally under Arab rule, beginning in the ninth century hereditary
autonomous dynasties arose that allowed local rulers to maintain a great deal of control
over the country's destiny. During this period Cairo was established as the capital of the
country and became a center of religion, learning, art, and architecture. In 1260, the
Egyptian ruler, Qutuz, and his forces stopped the Mongol advance across the Arab world at
the battle of Ayn Jalut in Palestine. Because of this victory, Islamic civilization could
continue to flourish when Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid caliphate, fell to the
Mongols. Qutuz's successor, Baybars I, inaugurated the reign of the Mamluks, a dynasty of
slave-soldiers of Turkish and Circassian origin that lasted for almost three centuries.

In 1517 Egypt was conquered by Sultan Selim I and absorbed into the Ottoman Empire.
Since the Turks were Muslims, however, and the sultans regarded themselves as the
preservers of Sunni Islam, this period saw institutional continuity, particularly in
religion, education, and the religious law courts. In addition, after only a century of
Ottoman rule, the Mamluk system reasserted itself, and Ottoman governors became at times
virtual prisoners in the citadel, the ancient seat of Egypt's rulers.

The modern history of Egypt is marked by Egyptian attempts to achieve political
independence, first from the Ottoman Empire and then from the British. In the first half
of the nineteenth century, Muhammad Ali, an Albanian and the Ottoman viceroy in Egypt,
attempted to create an Egyptian empire that extended to Syria and to remove Egypt from
Turkish control. Ultimately, he was unsuccessful, and true independence from foreign
powers would not be achieved until midway through the next century.

Foreign, including British, investment in Egypt and Britain's need to maintain control
over the Suez Canal resulted in the British occupation of Egypt in 1882. Although Egypt
was granted nominal independence in 1922, Britain remained the real power in the country.
Genuine political independence was finally achieved between the 1952 Revolution and the
1956 War. In 1952 the Free Officers, led by Lieutenant Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser, took
control of the government and removed King Faruk from power. In 1956 Nasser, as Egyptian
president, announced the nationalization of the Suez Canal, an action that resulted in the
tripartite invasion by Britain, France, and Israel. Ultimately, however, Egypt prevailed,
and the last British troops were withdrawn from the country by the end of the year.

No history of Egypt would be complete without mentioning the Arab-Israeli conflict,
which has cost Egypt so much in lives, territory, and property. Armed conflict between
Egypt and Israel ended in 1979 when the two countries signed the Camp David Accords. The
accords, however, constituted a separate peace between Egypt and Israel and did not lead
to a comprehensive settlement that would have satisfied Palestinian demands for a homeland
or brought about peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Thus, Egypt remained
embroiled in the conflict on the diplomatic level and continued to press for an
international conference to achieve a comprehensive agreement.